Summer School

The Tobacco Factory Theatre’s unique and innovative Summer School is renowned for giving young people an inspirational performing arts experience in a fun and supportive environment. It promises a fun and fulfilling experience for young people aged 13 – 18, where they will create memories, develop skills and make friends that will last much longer than the summer holidays.

This year, participants will explore the area immediately surrounding the Tobacco Factory to uncover exciting stories to tell on stage. They will be looking outside, peering inside and talking to local people, finding places and narratives that interest and inspire them. Then, working with an expert team of professional theatre-makers, they will turn what they find into performance.

Over the week participants will develop skills in improvisation, theatre writing and sound design, working collaboratively to discover the best ways of telling their stories on stage. Those already experienced in drama will find the new perspective on the process of making performance stimulating and inspiring; those with little or no experience in drama will benefit from the supportive and nurturing ethos of the summer school, which values each participant as an individual with a unique creative talent to bring to the table.

Unlike a lot of summer schools, the Tobacco Factory’s Summer School is not about ‘acting’ or ‘putting on a play’. Rather it is a about inspiring young people and stimulating their own creativity through exposing them to new and exciting ways of making performance, which is collaborative and multi-disciplinary.